Creating a Culture of Innovation in the Community College

As we approach the second decade of the new millennium, there is a renaissance of innovation in education, a resurgence of interest and experimentation that begs for analysis and review. To that end, the League for Innovation in the Community College proposed to conduct a national study on the nature of innovation in the community college using recipients of its Innovation of the Year award from 1999 through 2008 as a data set. With funding from MetLife Foundation, researchers examined these innovations and explored the perspectives of the winners of these awards. In September 2009, a survey created by the researchers with assistance from a focus group—field-tested on a sample of winners not included in the project and vetted by a national advisory committee—was distributed electronically to the 400 award winners; 117 respondents returned surveys for a return rate of 29%. In addition to the survey, more than 40 of the award winners were interviewed using interview questions created by the researchers and vetted by the national advisory committee. The full report and all project findings can be accessed at www.league.org/natureofinnovation. Based on the findings from this national study on the nature of innovation, this article addresses the challenge of creating a culture of innovation in the community college. The characteristics of a culture that support and encourage innovation and the role of leaders in shaping that culture are featured in the article.     

Awards and recognition: Do they matter in teachers’ income trajectory?

Do teaching awards affect the growth in income of teachers recognized for excellence? Our study is one of the firsts to use income as the primary indicator of success when evaluating the impact of an award. Taking the case of Metrobank Foundation Award for Outstanding Teachers in the Philippines, our analysis reveals that the award had a higher impact on the income of winners who were in the middle of their career when they received the award. This implies that timing as to when an award is received matters. Relatively younger winners, in their mid-career, have more years in their professional career to capitalize on the award.     

Web‐based student feedback: comparing teaching‐award and research‐award recipients

We examined web‐based ratings and open‐ended comments of teaching‐award winners (n = 120) and research‐award winners (n = 119) to determine if teaching‐award winners received more favourable ratings and comments on RateMyProfessors.com. As predicted, students rated teaching‐award winners higher than research‐award winners on measures of teaching quality (i.e. helpfulness and clarity). A higher percentage of teaching‐award recipients relative to research‐award recipients received positive open‐ended comments about competence, use of humour, clarity, appearance and personality as well as both positive and negative open‐ended comments about level of course difficulty. We discuss implications of these findings for lending credibility to the RateMyProfessors.com indices and for promoting published faculty evaluations at post‐secondary institutions more generally.     

Tennessee Promise: A Response to Organizational Change

Community colleges in Tennessee, either directly or indirectly, experienced unprecedented change as a result of Tennessee Promise. The present study explored how student support service administrators at three community colleges responded to organizational change as a result of the Tennessee Promise legislation. Investigators selected community colleges for the multi-site case study because the legislative impact would be actualized by the preparations made to serve incoming Promise recipients. The delivery of orientation services framed organizational change because the service staff facilitate connections and provide information to incoming students. Challenges like a shifting population, ill-equipped infrastructure, inadequate remediation support, heightened interest for social engagement opportunities, misinformation, and unmet fiscal needs left administrators seeking coherence through the change process. Investigators found community college administrators react to change similarly. Administrators acknowledged change as continuous, created a culture of innovation among stakeholders, and were not afraid to fail as responses to the organizational change phenomenon.     

Using a scholarship of teaching and learning approach to award faculty who innovate

This study examines a college-teaching award that uses a scholarship of teaching model focusing on learning outcomes. Through questionnaires the researcher examined two groups’ perceptions: award recipients and academic leaders. Respondents described the award and indicated the perceived effect on faculty and programs. Both groups highlighted faculty incentive to innovate for promoting student learning, a strong impact on performance evaluation, and recognition of exceptional teaching. Respondents recommended better communicating the award’s rigor and learning focus to increase its impact. Recipients reported the award’s influence on continued innovation, engagement in teaching scholarship, and leadership opportunities. Over half have presented their work in peer-reviewed venues.     

高校拔尖创新人才创新素养的现状及其对创造力的影响研究——以全国"挑战杯"获奖者为例

通过对上海市11所高校的全国“挑战杯”获奖者创新素养和创造力现状进行实证调查,研究发现：全国“挑战杯”获奖者创新素养评价指标体系包含创新人格、创新意识、创新思维、创新行为、创新支持感知和创新自我效能感6个维度共19个因子。通过构建“挑战杯”获奖者创新素养与创造力的结构方程模型发现:创新意识、创新思维、创新行为和创新自我效能感对创造力产生直接的正向影响,创新人格以创新意识和创新思维为中介对创造力产生正向影响,创新支持感知以创新行为和创新自我效能感为中介对创造力产生正向影响,而创新人格和创新支持感知作为创新素养的内部和外部动机,通过交互作用共同影响创造力。     

IIMNOVATIVENESS AND RELATED FACTORS IN CANADA'S COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This study was designed to determine the extent to which innovative activities vary among Canada's community colleges and to what degree specific organizational characteristics correlate with institutional innovativeness. The hypotheses were derived from an extensive literature on innovation theory, largely centered in the private sector. The research methodology was modelled after organizational innovation studies in the structural‐functional paradigm.

Data on specific innovations, both initiated and implemented, together with a number of organizational variables, were gathered from a sample of fifteen community colleges across Canada. The results confirmed that innovativeness does vary among institutions and also correlates positively with concentrations of support function specialist positions and with levels of macro‐environmental funding for innovative activity. The study also confirmed that an inverse relationship exists between innovative activity and measures of centralization of authority.

In general, it was found that findings reached in studies of innovation involving private sector organizations were applicable to the community college sector.     

SERVING STUDENT NEEDS THROUGH WRITING CENTERS

Many community colleges have writing centers to help students develop their writing skills because the ability to communicate ideas clearly and accurately is essential for college success. Writing centers are staffed by faculty members, paraprofessionals, and peer tutors who assist students with planning, drafting, and revising essays and research projects. Many centers also offer computer programs and word processing as writing tools. These findings resulted from a study of 13 writing centers in community colleges belonging to the League for Innovation in the Community College. We used a questionnaire to collect data on the design and operation of each center. Although many similarities exist, each campus has modified such features as staffing, hours, and services to meet the needs of its student body. Usage rates indicate that students need and seek out services that can help them achieve academic success.     

Award‐winning University Teachers’ Self‐efficacy Regarding Teaching

In 1989 and 1990 the University of Sydney announced awards for excellence in teaching to 12 members of its academic staff. This paper reports the results of an attempt to analyse two aspects of the award‐winners’ self‐efficacy regarding teaching: their perceived influence over their students’ learning, and their self‐rated competence on a set of teaching tasks. The award‐winners were found to score higher on both of these than comparison groups of less experienced university teachers, though the latter rated themselves higher on a research related teaching task.     

Promoting innovation in teaching and learning: Problems,processes and institutional mechanisms

This paper examines constraints on innovation in teaching and learning in higher education, and institutional mechanisms for trying to promote such innovation. Innovation is considered as a process of change rather than the dissemination of novel ideas. Factors such as teaching climate, resource allocation and consultancy support are considered. The dangers of a mismatch between “innovations” and problems are discussed, and the importance of giving adequate attention to problem diagnosis is stressed. A possible model incorporating these emphases is outlined in brief.     

National academic award winners over time: their family situation,education and interpersonal relations

The article presents the results of a study focusing on the family situation, education and interpersonal relations of adults (26–35 years old) who in their adolescence (16–19 years old) displayed exceptional giftedness. One group of those surveyed were national academic award winners (90). The control group consisted of 90 people of no outstanding academic achievement. The research found many differences between these two groups, both in the family situation and in interpersonal relations. High achievers were raised in families of higher social and professional status, and almost 72.2% of them decided to continue their academic career after they had graduated from university. The national academic award winners showed higher scores in shyness and lower scores in sociability in interpersonal relations.     

Using Action Research to Innov8: Facilitating Culture Shifts in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACT

The mission of a community college is distinct from a research one university, where empirical research is valued over investigation of discipline-based teaching and learning. The open-access, affordable, workforce, and transfer emphasis that serves many non-traditional community college students is a rich, meaningful environment for fostering the scholarship of teaching and learning, yet despite an emphasis on best practices and student success outcomes, teaching, and learning in this environment is an underappreciated element of the faculty role. This study explores the use of action research to facilitate engagement in the scholarship of teaching and instructional innovation. The mixed-method action research design incorporated quantitative and qualitative analysis from a wide variety of data sources and triangulated findings through a variation of techniques, including ongoing researcher dialogue and ratings. Action research serves as both the method for this study and the mechanism for faculty research on classroom innovations. This was substantiated as a catalyst for cultivating ongoing inquiry and professional growth. The Innov8 program and integration of action research appears to have a long-term, substantive impact on faculty perspectives, specifically influencing faculty culture, continued educational investigation, and ultimately student learning outcomes.     

关于基础教学的改革与设想

在市场经济高速发展的今天,各行各业都将围绕一个中心,即改革与创新。作为培养人材的高校,也必须做出相应调整和创新,就目前基础教育的现状及存在的问题,提出基础教育改革的设想,为探索基础教育发展的新思路提供参考。     

大学文化创新动力机制探析

大学文化创新是促进大学不断发展、使大学保持旺盛生命力的内在动力。然而,大学文化创新自身动机的产生以及创造热情的激发、创新行动的引发和推进,同样需要能量充足的动力驱动。大学应着眼于外部环境和内部环境的多种关系以及创新主体的精神领域,全面发掘可资利用的动力源,并通过动力平衡机制的建立和对动力作用关系的能动处理,使大学文化创新拥有稳定、持久的动力支撑系统。     

高职院校“校企融合,双岗双能”师资队伍建设研究与实践

推进人才培养模式改革,科学构建以工作过程为导向的课程体系,形成校企合作、工学结合相互发展的办学格局,离不开教师创造性的工作。为解决上述问题,探索出"校企融合、双岗双能"的师资队伍建设模式,并对高职院校教师任职条件、教师聘任、职称评审等方面的政策提出一定的参考建议。     

科技创新载体：高职院校发展新的增长点——以江苏高职大学科技园为例

高职院校经过前一阶段的跨越发展,现阶段又面临着生源下降、规模效益递减等新问题。高职院校要主动顺应我国创新型国家建设需要和现代产业体系新要求,以科技创新载体建设为抓手,有效盘活学校教科研资源,打造新的发展增长点,促进高职院校转入内涵发展、质量建设新阶段。江苏省三大高职院校的科技园区建设为此提供了良好的范例。     

Role of Brokerage in Evolving Innovation Systems: A Case of the Fodder Innovation Project in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper looks at brokerage functions in a project on building innovation capacity through improved networking. Innovation capacity influences how actors respond to changes in their environments. In such dynamic environments well connected sets of actors are at an advantage in that they can combine skills to address the emerging opportunities and challenges. However, policy and cultural barriers especially in African innovation systems raise the transaction costs of networking leading to weak connectivity among actors thus poor innovation capacity. This paper uses case studies from West Africa to illustrate that actors that play brokerage functions are critical in navigating around or dismantling the barriers and thus enhance innovation capacity. This paper assumes that innovation capacity rather than innovations per se is lacking in African agriculture. The paper is a product of an action research based study of Key Partner Organizations and the coalitions of stakeholders they formed around fodder innovation themes in Nigeria. We show that brokerage negotiates innovation barriers and improve networking. The paper concludes that brokerage roles are context-specific; policies that facilitate eclectic brokerage functions are critical. This paper is shedding light on the broadened scope for actors playing boundary roles, e.g. extension organizations under more relaxed organizational and policy contexts. There are few studies on brokerage and boundary work particularly in African agriculture. This study is a grounded discussion on the brokering functions in African rural development. It uses data from similar programmes to qualify observations and conclusions from the Fodder Innovation Project (FIP) case study.     

Award Winning University Teachers' Beliefs About Teaching Versus Research

The restructuring of higher education in Australia has meant the redefinition of the roles of former Colleges of Advanced Education staff regarding research, thus re‐opening for debate the question of the relative importance of teaching and research in universities and the relationship between the two. This article explores these issues through the perceptions of the first 12 winners of awards for excellence in teaching at the University of Sydney. As might be expected, the award winners tended to give higher priority to teaching than to research but in doing so made many significant comments about the two. Comments about the relationship between teaching and research ranged from supporting the idea that the two are independent to the belief that they were interdependent. More complex views were taken by those who saw teaching and research in constant interaction. The article concludes with questions as to the likely beliefs of those whose eminence is as researchers rather than as teachers.     

民间创新的社会效应评价

民间创新是指那些未受过高等教育的普通群众的创新,其创新过程未受到政府资助。民间创新既有技术创新,也有制度、管理和组织创新。本研究中的民间创新特指农民创新。基于对天津财经大学创新与创业研究中心民间创新数据库中近2000个农民创新的案例研究,分析了民间创新对于农村发展的意义。研究发现：民间创新有助于和谐社会和创新型国家建设、有助于促进新的组织形式的产生和地方经济的发展。     

关于创新高等职业教育评估体系的探讨

高等职业教育的发展要开拓一个充满生机、活力的发展局面,必须创新高等职业教育评估体系。本文论述了创新高职教育评估体系对高职教育发展的意义,以及如何在观念、体制、过程、元评估等层面创新高等职业教育评估体系,并就现阶段高等职业教育评估体系中存在的不足进行了分析和探讨,以期为如火如荼进行中的高等职业教育评估提供创新对策和理论上的支撑。